4 Tips To Immediately De-Stress and Stop Panic Attacks

Anxiety often comes with panic attacks, which many people suffer from; a terrifying moment of panic that can lead to making some people physically ill, shaking or crying. That feeling of panic that can control you if you let it, and can potentially be a huge problem. The feeling of panic that everyone deals with differently, and has different experiences with. The feeling of panic you can control. Although panic and panic attacks can be very hard to deal with effectively, especially in the moment, there are ways you can calm yourself and slow down the situation.

These techniques are some of the most widely used methods for calming yourself down quickly and alleviating anxiety in order to prevent panic attacks. However, everyone uses different techniques so try them all out and stick with the ones that you find best for you.

Deep Breaths

This is such an important tip, although many people overlook it as it seems a little ridiculous. Your breathing, controlling your mood? Yes. By slowing your breaths and taking deep breaths and focusing on your breathing, you can calm yourself down quite efficiently and de-stress quickly. Close your eyes and take a minute to yourself; this tip allows you to forget about the worry for at least a short while, as well as steadying your heart rate and lowering your temperature.

Visualisation

Use visualisation to envision another situation, preferably one stress-free and relaxing; for example, on holiday, or a particular moment when you felt properly happy. Thinking about such a time whilst using the method above is very useful in public places as it simply requires the brain, can take your mind off things and is very effective in calming you down. I also use this before meeting someone or a social event, and I will visualise the event going really well and it being successful, which often helps and gives me a quick confidence boost.

It’s been proven that visualising a certain place or person repeatedly can be very beneficial to preventing panic attacks; if you can, try to have somewhere in particular that you visualise as it should calm you down even faster due to the links your brain will make with the mental image.

Isolate Yourself

Sometimes being alone is the best thing for you. Get away from the people surrounding or crowding you, isolate yourself and then allow yourself to use that space to calm down and think. People reacting can worsen the situation and make you more agitated, so by escaping from that situation, you’re automatically improving the chances of you calming down faster.

Clear Your Head

Getting fresh air or just going somewhere quiet (like the last point) is great as it means you can clear your head and breathe deeply without anyone near you. It’s important that you get rid of any negative thoughts dwelling in your brain, as this will help you get rid of the sensation of panic and therefore calm down more efficiently and recover faster. When I feel as if I’m about to panic, I try to force as many negative thoughts as I can away whilst trying to breathe deeply and evenly. Often, people can think that the room is closing on or they may get the urge to throw up to relive their panic, but by emptying their heads the thoughts become less significant, meaning they have less of an impact.